In a whole fruit juice extractor such as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,970,861; 5,992,311; 5,996,485; and 6,568,319, the disclosures which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, the motion of the extractor cups and the orifice tube received within the strainer tube are each controlled by mechanical cams. Although the motions are separate, the cams and extractor cups and movement of the orifice beam are synchronized. Typically a single camshaft supports at least a drive cam (or cup cam), which engages cam followers located on a cup support member, i.e., a cup beam. The cup beam cam followers are held in contact with the cams through the use of springs and rotation of the camshaft rotates the drive cams and moves the moveable extractor cups into fixed extractor cups located on a cup bridge.
The orifice beam is mounted for movement within a product material area and supports orifice tubes that are each received within a respective strainer tube that is mounted on the juice manifold. An orifice cam is mounted on the camshaft and engages a drive mechanism that also connects to the orifice beam such that as the orifice cam rotates, the drive mechanism reciprocates the orifice beam during extractor operation, thus, driving the orifice tube in and out of the strainer tube.
The orifice beam, a drive mechanism that engages the orifice beam and the extractor cups require periodic cleaning, which typically occurs by a spray nozzle that extends outward from a pipe within the juice extractor. This pipe and attached nozzle collects debris, which can accumulate and cause operational problems during the juice extraction process.